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One older man wiping down his store window even called out, “Good practice, I hope, Miss Lou?”
“Always is,” I replied cheerfully.
I walked right down the main street because I’d already been planning on making a quick stop on my way home. The doctor’s office was open for ten more minutes when I reached the front door.
I went past the now-empty chairs toward the reception desk. To my surprise, Dr. Ribeiro, the woman I’d seen at the café a few times now, was standing behind it. Her receptionist must have already gone home.
“Oh!” she said when she saw me, and motioned me the rest of the way over. “You’re our new skater in town. I’ve already heard all about you. Small town gossip, you know.”
She gave a soft laugh that had the same inflection as her mild accent. Portuguese, I was going to guess based on the little Brazilian flag tacked to her bulletin board alongside various informational papers.
“I guess you probably were the subject of a lot of that when you first moved in too, huh?” I had to say.
Dr. Ribeiro laughed again. “Some, I’m sure. Most are too polite to gossip about me to my own face. But the doctor who was just retiring when I showed up was a curmudgeon, from what they gossiped to me abouthim, so people were happy to have a new face around pretty quickly. What can I do for you?”
I could see how Hobb Creek’s citizens would have warmed up to her in a flash with her easygoing, welcoming attitude.
I flicked my hand toward my body. “Because of all the bumps and tumbles I take in a typical day, I figured it’d be good to schedule regular checkups. And I haven’t had a proper physical in ages.”
Back home, I’d never seen a regular doctor. Mom had always had a guy with medical training in the crew, and he’d looked after any pressing health issues.
“I can write you in. I believe we have some openings next week. What time works for you?”
I ended up with a mid-morning appointment the following Thursday and headed out with a spring in my step with another mission accomplished.
Dr. Ribeiro’s voice followed me out the door. “And if you ever need a hand getting your footing here in town, don’t hesitate to get in touch.”
This had to be small-town life at its best. Friendly neighbors, simple schedules—everything perfectlynormal.
My satisfaction with how the day had turned out after all buoyed me the rest of the way back to the bungalow. I walked straight to my bedroom to set down my equipment bag—and stalled two steps inside.
The evening breeze was wafting in with even greater force than usual, through a neat rectangular hole that’d been cut into the window screen.
And on the floor beneath my bedroom window, like someone had pushed it in through that hole, lay the limp carcass of a dead, blood-smeared squirrel.
EIGHTEEN
Luciana
I was startingto get used to seeing Hobb Creek at three in the morning, but that didn’t mean that I had to like it. All I wanted in life was a little peace, and I wasgoingto get it.
If that meant I had to crouch on the roof of a building three stories high down the street from the gang’s shitty hideout, then so be it.
I sighed and adjusted the binoculars I’d purchased specifically because they were supposed to be enhanced for dark conditions. Finally, when I’d gotten the settings just right, the shapes around the storage building came into focus.
A few lights were on in the building. I noticed that the gang members had taken to parking their cars close to the entrance, where they could be more easily monitored, rather than scattered across the lot.
I smirked. That showed that they were at least a little bit scared of me.
They thought torturing forest animals was going to makemerun scared? They had no idea who they were dealing with. I could do worse, much worse, if I wanted to.
They were lucky I didn’t.
Mass murder was still off the table, even if that was what Mom would have said they deserved. There had to be another way I could make life so difficult for them that they’d move somewhere else.
Somewhere with a competent police force, somewhere that would eat small, poorly run gangs like theirs alive. I wouldn’t have to bloody my hands, and Hobb Creek would finally be free.
Headlights appeared from the far end of the road. I ducked beneath the low wall that ran around the edge of the flat-roofed building to keep out of sight and peeked cautiously over the edge.
